With the official launch of hurricane season on June 1, insurance expert Chris Amrhein, president of the Amrhein & Associates insurance agency in Lorton, Va., cautions that in the wake of natural disasters, homeowners need to be especially vigilant.

The Andover Township, NJ, Land Use Board continues to hear testimony on the proposed site plan for the paving stone plant near the Limecrest Quarry. The proposed paving stone plant would be constructed in two phases, with the first phase starting soon after the application’s approval from the Land Use Board, according to the plant’s consultant.

After the 1995 Kobe earthquake, Japanese engineers started constructing buildings that could effectively withstand severe shaking. Japan’s modern buildings now rest on huge, three-foot-wide rubber or fluid-filled shock absorbers.

A building engineering expert says the devastating Christchurch quake was “pretty much a bullseye.” Professor John Wilson, chair of the Australian earthquake loading standard and deputy dean of engineering at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, said the quake struck right at the heart of Christchurch. “It was so close to Christchurch that we weren’t […]

The attorney for a 20-year-old Oak Harbor, WA, woman may claim that mismatched tires caused a Sept. 3 accident that killed three people on North Whidbey. Both Jordyn Weichert and her possible co-defendant, 22-year-old Samantha Bowling, appeared in Island County Superior Court Dec. 6 for motion hearings.

A westbound lane on the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge was closed last week after Caltrans officials decided to add an additional reinforcement plate beneath the bridge after a crack was discovered during an inspection. The crack was found in a steel girder on the underside of the bridge that is part of a system that allows the structure to move back and forth during an earthquake, Caltrans spokesman Bob Haus said. The girder was installed as part of a seismic retrofit completed in 2001.